AT LEAST 65 KILLED IN SYRIA EXECUTIONS

The bodies of at least 65 people, some with hands tied behind their backs, were found in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo Tuesday as the government and rebels trying to overthrow it blamed each other for the latest mass killing.

The bodies, almost all of men in their 20s and 30s, were discovered in the contested neighborhood of Bustan al-Qasr, the director of the Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman said. Intense clashes between rebels and government troops have raged in the district since opposition forces launched an offensive on Aleppo in July.

Abdul-Rahman said the identities of the dead were unknown, and it was not clear who was behind the killings or when they occurred. A government official told The Associated Press in Damascus that the dead were residents of Bustan al-Qasr who were kidnapped and later killed.

Syrian state TV said the men were killed by members of Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda-linked group that the Obama administration has labeled as a terrorist organization. It said the men were killed after they demanded members of the group to leave their areas.

Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, put the number of bodies found at 80. It blamed government forces for the killing.

Such exchanges of accusations over killings have been common in Syria since the country’s conflict began in March 2011. With lawlessness and joblessness now rife in many areas, kidnappings for ransom are not uncommon.

Earlier in the day, Syrian rebels stormed a government intelligence complex in the oil-rich east of the country, freeing at least 11 people held in a prison at the facility, activists said.

After five days of heavy clashes around the intelligence compound in the city of Deir el-Zour, rebels finally overran the complex early Tuesday.